Louisville 86 – Siena 60: Second Half Boom Pushes Cards Past Saints

After losing back-to-back games David Padgett and the Louisville Cardinals got off to a great start with a 15-4 lead against Siena after the first media timeout. Unfortunately, for the rest of the first half the majority of the momentum was with the visiting team.

The Cards trailed for a good strength in the first half after turning it over 11 times and getting beat on the backboard. After performing poorly in the first 20-minutes of play the Cards got it turned around in the second half and used a couple of huge runs to put Siena away. Louisville outscored the Saints 47-24 in the second half and won by a final score of 86-80.

“Much better in the second half, needless to say,” David Padgett said following the game. “We came out and obviously started out pretty hot, I think we had 12 points in the first four minutes. Whether or not we just got complacent with the lead or what, I’m not sure. Nonetheless, we came out, responded in the second half, played Louisville defense, held them to 30 percent in the second half, 31 overall in the game. Second half was much better. The focal point leading into this game, which we didn’t do a good job of against Seton Hall, was get the ball inside. Get it inside to Ray (Spalding) or Anas (Mahmoud) post it up, or get the ball inside off the bounce, so on and so forth. Obviously, we did a much better job of that, you can see off Anas’ and Ray’s numbers. I’m pleased with the win, first and foremost, that always goes without saying. We’ve got things we need to improve on obviously, we just have got to continue to work. Overall, I’m pleased with the win, and we’ll take it, move on, and get ready for Saturday.”

It was nice to see the team put it together in the second half and put away a team they’re supposed to destroy. With that said, it was discouraging to see the lack of urgency in the first half after coming off back-to-back losses.

Indiana isn’t a top tier team this season, but they’ll be a good test for Louisville on Saturday and it would obviously become their best win of the season.

Nick Coffey is the creator and lead publisher for TheCardinalConnect.com. Along with covering Louisville basketball, football and recruiting, Nick also hosts The Red Zone weekdays from noon – 3:00 PM on Cards Radio 790 KRD.